By Chukwu Mba
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU) has witnessed some controversies in the past few days that have put the university in the public glare. Starting with the letter allegedly written to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by an Abuja-based law firm (Sword and Shield) on behalf of some anonymous staff of COOU to the publication of the plight of students of the Medical College of the university who cried out and alerted the whole world of their deprivations.
When it seemed that a can of worms was about to be opened as it pertains to the management of the university, the management went into a hotch-potch of denials and attempts at image laundering. The Students Union Government of the university came out to read a scripted defence for the management in respect of the alleged petition to the EFCC.
Unfortunately, the Student Union government of the university seems to have been too hasty in sending out the purported rejoinder to the EFCC petition which has nothing to do with students. It was expected that the Acting Vice Chancellor of COOU would have written a rejoinder by herself, denying the allegations in the said petition because she alone knows the truth about those allegations. The denial published by the university’s PRO, Dr. Harrison Madubueze was more or less an empty document that rigmaroled without denying any of the said allegations in specific terms.
Assuming but without conceding that the hired parrots speaking for the Acting Vice Chancellor in respect of the EFCC petition are correct, how do they reconcile their position with the press release done by the President of the medical students, which was corroborated by the Provost of the college both of which documents appear to have given Credence to the EFCC petition with respect to the case of the N20million Solar system installation in the college alleged to have been executed by the Ag Vice chancellor’s son, Nelson Omenugha and has never worked for a day.
Be that as it may, there is a petition before the EFCC and it is the duty of the anti graft agency is to investigate the allegations contained in it and it is the responsibility of the Ag. Vice Chancellor, Prof. Kate Azuka Omenugha to provide answers to their interrogations on those issues and more that she may need to answer.
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University is a flagship institution in Anambra state. And there are signs that the Governor of the State and visitor is making efforts to reposition it to give Ndi Anambra a befitting citadel of learning especially for children who desire quality education but may not have the financial capacity to access private universities. In the Town Hall meeting between the Staff of the university and the Honorable Commissioner of Education Professor Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, the Pro-Chancellor Professor Chidi Odinkalu and the university staff held at the Igbariam campus on the 19th December 2024, the Pro-Chancellor announced that the Visitor Professor Chukwuma Soludo had directed him to institute and he has instituted a Genius Fund that will avail indigent Ndi Anambra to access quality education in the university. That gesture brought so much joy to the hearts of well-meaning Anambrarians who have witnessed the state suffer low male enrollment in schools, particularly the Tertiary Institutions.
Unfortunately, however, information making the rounds in the university and the state is that the admission process as regards new intakes into the 2024/2025 academic year has been high-jacked, compromised and grossly monetized by the Ag Vice Chancellor Professor Kate Azuka Omenugha, her son, Nelson Omenugha and the admission officer, Dr. Agubosim. It was alleged also that Prof. Omenugha created one scheme she called “Friends of the University” with which she has collected so much money from members of the public in the guise of doing one project or the other in their name and offering admissions into the five departments in question in the university to them in return. The funds collected for most of those projects have never been accounted for and would remain so unless somebody scrutinizes the admission process of the university this year.
It is a general lamentation in the university that the children of the less privileged were deliberately schemed out of admission into the core courses of Medicine, Law, Pharmacy, Nursing and Medical Laboratories Sciences which were allegedly sold to the highest bidders by Prof. Kate Omenugha and her cohorts. In the alleged unprecedented level of admission racketeering that took place in the university in the just concluded admission of fresh students into the 2024/2025 academic year.
Admission into courses such as Faculty of Law, Medicine and Surgery, Nursing, Pharmacy and Medical Laboratory Sciences were allegedly sold for as much as N3,000,000.00 (three million naira) to undeserving candidates. Merit was not considered in about 80 percent of the admissions into those faculties and departments. Selling points were allegedly designated for those admission and the sellers are known staff of the university. It got to a point where people considered to have paid less for the admissions were removed from the list once desperate people that paid higher sums emerged. Not even respected officers of the university could secure admission for their wards.
What is more agonising about the malfeasance pointed out is that the Governor of Anambra State has been passionate in providing infrastructure in public institutions for the purpose of educating the children of the less privileged. The Council of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University has established an endowment fund (genius fund) for taking care of the fees of the less privileged from the state. The question is: Now that the only university Ndi Anambra can call their own is selling admissions for as much as N3,000,000.00 (three million naira) each, who will buy such admissions for those children of the less privileged that are targeted by both the Governor of Anambra State and the Council of the university. It is a case of the worst inhumanity to Ndi Anambra and it should form part of the EFCC investigations.
Finally, mention must also be made of the alleged fleecing of the beneficiaries of the TETfund Institution-Based Research grant from Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University. It is circulating among the staff of the university that kickbacks were collected from the seventy-two (72) beneficiaries of the grant who were compelled to pay between N190,000.00 (one hundred and ninety thousand naira) and N600,000.00 (six hundred thousand naira) each depending on each person’s ability to resist the coercion and threats that followed the demand for the kickbacks. The sums were paid into Account No. 6500318770 belonging to Uwabunommuta Integrated Services at Moniepoint Microfinance Bank.
It is alleged that the administration of the university is now a case study in corruption and impunity. There is much work for the EFCC, the Council of the university and the Visitor to the university, the Governor of Anambra State who must take steps to end the tragedy and human suffering that the Prof. Kate Azuka Omenugha Administration at COOU is alleged to have become.
